Wrathion Tactics and Strategy guide

Welcome to our strategy and tactics guide for Wrathion, the Black Emperor,
in Ny'alotha. Here, we tell you all you need to know to defeat this
boss. We also include a role by role breakdown of the strategy, so that you can
quickly see what you need to do depending on your role: DPS, tanks, or
healers.

Fight Summary / TL;DR

Tanks

Face the boss away from the rest of the raid (to avoid his breath attack
from damaging them) while also ensuring that the Tail Swipe attack
does not damage them; essentially the raid should always be to the boss's
side.

Pay particular attention to pick up the boss with correct facing when he
lands after Burning Cataclysm.

During Phase Two

On Heroic mode, pick up the Ashwalker Assassins.

3.2.

Healers

During Phase One

Make sure to pay special attention to player health when Gale Blast
and Incineration are being used by the boss.

On Heroic mode, be prepared for extremely high damage coming from any
Ashwalker Assassins that are still in stealth.

3.3.

DPS

During Phase One

Do as much DPS to Wrathion as possible.

During Phase Two

Focus the Crackling Shards that Scales of Wrathion players
are not going to instantly destroy (communicate with your raid to coordinate),
ensuring that none are left by the end of the phase.

On Heroic mode, make sure to also kill any
Ashwalker Assassins that are present.

3.4.

Everyone

During Phase One

Make sure to never be in front of or behind Wrathion, in order to avoid his
breath and tail attacks.

When Gale Blast is being cast, move away from the boss (the
dangerous area around him is marked) and spread out 5 or more yards apart
until after the meteors land.

Players afflicted by Incineration must move far away from the
rest of the raid before their debuff expires.

During Burning Cataclysm, pay attention and ensure that you move
quickly to the safe area in the arena.

During Phase Two

Specially designated players intercept the falling
Scales of Wrathion and use this buff to destroy Crackling Shards
by running over them. Be prepared for high damage from each destroyed
Shard.

On Heroic mode, use AoE abilities to reveal the stealthed
Ashwalker Assassins as quickly as possible.

4.

Phase One

During Phase One, the raid fights Wrathion, and no adds are present. Each
Phase One lasts approximately 3 minutes.

4.1.

Abilities

For a full list of the abilities used
in this phase, check out our dedicated Wrathion Encounter Journal page.

4.1.1.

Notes

Burning Cataclysm is the main ability of this phase, and
Wrathion will cast it twice before moving to Phase Two. Each cast will leave
a small safe space somewhere at the edge of the arena, where the expanding
exploding zones will not reach. This is typically located at the opposite
end of the arena from where Wrathion moves when he begins casting the
ability.

It is also worth noting that Wrathion tends to use his breath attack
immediately after performing Burning Cataclysm, so while he is still moving
and being positioned by the tanks.

4.2.

Strategy

Phase One is relatively simple, and the bullet points below should actually
provide you with all the information you need to complete it.

Tanks should make sure to face Wrathion away from the raid, and to swap
in order to drop the stacks of Searing Armor applied by the breath
attack.

Players need to move away from the boss when Gale Blast is
being cast, and to stay spread out until after the subsequent meteors
land.

At the start of each Burning Cataclysm cast, the raid must make
sure to move to the only area of the arena that will remain safe. This is
easy enough to tell by finding the place where no fireballs are going to
land, typically leaving the most room between the fiery areas and the edge of
the arena. Once the fiery areas expand and explode, the raid should get back
into position for Wrathion landing.

The Molten Eruption ability does not really need to be handled
during Phase One, and players should simply ideally not be damaged by standing
at the impact locations when the ability is cast, although this damage is not
really problematic.

Since you cannot fight Wrathion himself during Phase Two, and since there is
quite a bit of downtime during the slow-paced Phase One, this is the ideal
time to use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp, preferably
at the pull.

5.

Phase Two

Phase Two starts shortly after the second Burning Cataclysm, and
lasts for approximately 1 minute.

5.1.

Abilities

For a full list of the abilities used
in this phase, check out our dedicated Wrathion Encounter Journal page.

5.1.1.

Notes

Note that the Ashwalker Assassins are only present in Heroic
mode.

5.2.

Strategy

In short, the strategy of Phase Two is all about destroying every single
Crackling Shard before Phase One starts again, while also making sure
to intercept all the falling Scales of Wrathion to prevent the high
raid-wide damage that failing to do this would cause.

Designated players should intercept the Scales of Wrathion: the best
candidates are players with high mobility (so they can move from one shard
to the next in order to destroy them) and who also have some means of reducing
or altogether avoiding damage taken, since they will need to endure several
shard destruction explosions in succession.

The rest of the raid should simply focus their DPS on the shards that
Scales of Wrathion players are not destroying.

In Heroic node, several
Ashwalker Assassins join the fight. These adds start out in stealth
(Smoke Shroud), and while stealthed they can stun random players for
10 seconds (Noxious Choke), or pick a target and deal a very high
amount of damage to them (Dark Ambush).

Both the stun and the damaging ability of these adds can be very
problematic, so the raid should make sure to reveal them from stealth
(by dealing AoE damage or using abilities like Ring of Peace or
Hunter flares), since
the adds cannot perform the aforementioned abilities if they are not in
stealth. Once they are out of stealth, they can be dealt with as though they
were regular adds (tanked and killed).